Two very different places; Sihanoukville was fascinating as it was such a mess with more building work going on there than we could have ever thought possible! In comparison, Koh Rong Sanloem was a blissful tropical island retreat, with crystal clear waters ready to wash any stresses away.
Day 153: Sihanoukville
The boat out was pretty early, so we were up before 7am. We thought they’d said that the boat left at 7.30am, so planned to get to breakfast for 7am. In the end, they turned up just before 7am at our place saying they were waiting for us at the boat! Luckily we were packed, and they’d included a take away breakfast for us. It was the standard SE Asian take out packaging though: two polystyrene boxes each, in a plastic bag with a plastic spoon. Not very eco friendly for an ecotourism place…
The river was really foggy as we set out.
It burned off as the sun rose though, creating atmospheric mists as we passed through the jungled mountains, the closest we’d get to jungles here it seems… ☹.
The boat made good time, and we arrived at the little shack/bus stop to meet some other people we’d met at the CBET there. They’d come on the back of bikes from the town. We were all waiting for the 9.30am bus down to Sihanoukville, which finally turned up at gone 10am, giving us a chance to find out what they’d thought of Chi Phat. Both were older couples who, like our group, had found the facilities pretty basic, and shortened their trip by a couple of days too after discovering that there’s not as much to do here as is advertised. One couple had gone on one of the day treks, but at 22km it had been too long in the heat and they’d found it hard. Another couple talked about a trek into the forest for a night, on which day two was 14km back down the main road, rather than through jungle tracks, which is a little odd… No one was impressed by the attitude of the staff either, which is a shame. We concluded that Chi Phat is great for some people, but for many is probably not what is portrayed on the website… A more detailed post will follow…
The bus journey was uneventful and we arrived in Sihanoukville just after 12.30pm. We were immediately jumped on and asked about booking ferry tickets across to the islands. One of the bus companies has started running ferries so they try to get you here at the bus station! Luckily, I had already looked up prices and knew that they are all the same price. The main difference is the boats and where they drop off. These guys weren’t my first choice, but she insisted that our accommodation would come and pick us up from the pier, and phoned them to make sure. We took the simple option and booked here.
When we tried to move on to our hotel, ‘Scambodia’ struck when the ramorques at the bus station refused to drop the price to the hostel from $12 per ramorque. For a 20 minute journey this is a lot in Cambodia! (consider that we only paid $15 for a driver in Siem Reap to take us around all day!!). We had no other options though and they knew it, so we had to lump it.
Initially I’d thought that their claim that it’d take 20-25 minutes to travel the 5km to the hotel was just lies to justify the price, but we soon found out that they were not lying! Sihanoukville is a strange place, with pretty much every road having been dug up, and now existing as a dusty, rocky, pot holed nightmare for all transport! People’s shops and homes were accessed by a variety of odd methods, with boards and temporary bridges erected over the deep ditches at the sides of the roads. Dust was everywhere, and we arrived in desperate need of a shower!
We were staying at the Don Bosco Hotel School, which is a large hotel that works as a charity to train young people in hotel services so they can get jobs working for the many hotels in the area and on the islands. The gentleman who started this (from Melbourne but with Chinese (?) descent) was there to tell us a little about the place. All the staff at reception were very polite – a massive difference to the usual Cambodian service levels – it’s just not a thing here!
After checking into our rooms, we met up at the pool for a swim and had some snacks as it was already somehow nearly 4pm!
Dinner in the air conditioned restaurant was a rare treat, although I got excited about the chicken with mozzarella, tomatoes and creamed spinach as I haven’t had any for months, only to get a dry chicken breast with two slices of burger cheese and some spinach on the side! ☹. The boss tried again to ask for mozzarella, trying to explain to them that they need to deliver what is on the menu or explain that they do not have it. A plate of tomatoes came out with more burger cheese on it. Haha – epic fail! He then offered us a discount, which the staff also ignored. Ah well…
It was a little hard to understand everything the boss said with his accent and he spoke very quietly, but I think he was saying that in Cambodia, largely due to Mr Pot, there is a culture of not thinking for yourself or trying to solve problems, which is difficult when you’re trying to train people to go above and beyond for a customer…
We enjoyed our stay here though, with air conditioning and no noises at night. A welcome break between two rather basic residences!
Day 154: Koh Rong Samloem arrival and sunset
We enjoyed a fairly lazy start to the morning. The boat company had told us to be there an hour before, but knowing how these things work in SE Asia, and seeing as there was a free shuttle bus from the hotel at 10am, we decided to ignore that and turn up closer to half past. The shuttle couldn’t get down to the pier as there was so much traffic and building work, so we had to walk the last few hundred metres, stepping over rubble, ditches and rubbish to get there.
As expected, when we arrived 30 minutes early, we were told to take a seat. Admittedly, this was by the people at the café next to the pier, who want you to buy a drink, but they promised us that they couldn’t see our boat yet and would tell us when it was coming. They were all delayed today anyway due to the New Year holiday…
We settled with some very expensive drinks to wait. Only to be told at three minutes to 11 that the small boat sat there might actually be our boat after all, and maybe they weren’t running the big one today! We paid hastily, shouldered the bags and tried to run down the pier to the boats, which proved impossible as there were so many people in the covered waiting area of the pier! Boats leave from at least five different places and we couldn’t see which was ours due to all the bodies. With one minute to go, I headed for the boats I thought the bar tender had been pointing to, trying to squeeze through to see the uniforms or the boat names so we’d know we were in the right place. We were, and no one seemed to be boarding yet, phew. We hadn’t missed it. But there was no space, so we stood as best we could, Evie and I near the front where we’d ended up, and the others further back.
The boat was delayed, so we stood around for a while, suddenly aware of all the bodies pressed closely near us in the light of the current Coronavirus outbreak. Many people from SE Asia wear facemasks generally, but there were a couple of Westerners starting to wear them too now… Fingers crossed no-one here is sick…
When the slightly larger boat finally arrived total carnage descended. Clearly they are not used to such packed boats. As the boat arrived, people suddenly started pressing forwards. The boatmen tried to get us to make a path through so people could get off, but people (like Evie and I) kept getting shoved into it, and other people just walked right up it to get to the front of the line. That is not how we do things in England!
They started the unloading by shoving some crates up the newly formed pathway, meaning that the passengers that followed couldn’t get past. After some more shoving and jostling, a side path was made and they continued, except that they all wanted their bags which were still on the boat, and tried to hang around for them. There was simply no more space for them to cram into our waiting masses and in the end they had to move on, pushed along from behind. Which of course meant that, when the bags were finally unloaded, there was no one there to collect them so they sat in an ever growing pile. We started holding them up and trying to pass them over heads to the waiting people behind – bag crowdsurfing! Quite fun really. When we came to board I was worried that everyone wouldn’t fit and that the others, who were further back in the line, would have to wait for the next boat! Which they did not have a ticket for…
Luckily someone shouted out that Koh Rong was actually a different boat, and well over half the people squeezed their way back to board another boat. Phew! I had been worrying that this peaceful island we were trying to get to was going to be overrun on this, the busiest day of the year! What a time to pick!
We actually fit on the boat with seats to spare in the end, and completed the 40 minute boat ride to Koh Rong Sanloem island without incident. As we pulled into Saracen Bay and headed for the pier we were all excited. It looked glorious!
Unloading at the pier here was much easier, with the bags loaded off the back at the same time as we got off the front so we could pick our bags up as we passed. The waiting people had also queued sensibly in a single line down the pier so we could walk off without having to push past and risk falling in the water! (although the water was perfectly crystal clear and actually very inviting, I didn’t think my bag would agree…).
There was no taxi boat waiting, which didn’t really surprise me. Taxi boats were $15, so we decided to chill out in the bar opposite the pier, spend the $15 on drinks and try to call the hotel whilst we waited. After no luck for a while, we ordered lunch and the kids played in the white sand. Suddenly a man showed up calling for the Dolphin Bay (our resort) – our ride had arrived! We have no idea how as we hadn’t been able to get through, possibly he was expecting to meet other passengers? Unfortunately, we were still waiting for our food to arrive, so he said he’d go and take some other people somewhere and return. We ate and waited, for ages. In the end I took Aiden to a shack a couple down to get his hair cut whilst we waited. Of course, he returned whilst Aiden was in the chair, and said he’d come back in another 20 mins, which was more like 40… good job we were in a cool restaurant, looking over the sea and sand with nothing better to do!
Expecting the island to be more developed than it was, we’d booked ourselves in right at the bottom of Saracen Bay where it should be quieter. Even in this busy period that probably wasn’t necessary! Not that we’d had much choice though, a lot of the accommodations had been fully booked by the time we looked. Our resort consisted of a palm leaf covered wooden restaurant, with some bungalows to the side and rooms behind. At this point there are mangroves at the edge of the sea, and a forested hill rising up behind. With hammock huts everywhere, that 3km white sand beach stretching off into the distance and the ocean all sorts of blue, it was pretty idyllic!
The rooms themselves were pretty basic again, also wooden with gaps for airflow as there is no electricity during the day. The restaurant uses solar power and then a generator runs during the night which can operate fans and lights. They were nicer than the Chi Phat rooms though and we had a sink this time!
We finally got in the sea, although it’s so shallow that even walking out most of a hundred metres barely gets you to thigh deep! Sitting in the sea it is then 😊.
After enjoying the ocean for a while, Chris and I needed to go exploring so we left the kids with the parents (that’s why we invited them here right! 😊) and headed off on a delayed anniversary night out. Rather than just go for dinner, we’d had the idea to walk to sunset beach, except that it was most of 4km away up the beach and then over the middle of the island, and by the time we left it was pretty late. As the beach is the road, we charged up that, walking on the wet sand the retreating tide had left, back up to the pier, before finding the very poorly marked trail which heads off into the jungle.
Unable to see where the sun was, we thought we’d missed it as we charged along the trail, which starts off pretty flat before getting very rocky near the end. We were pretty sweaty by the time we arrived, just in time to watch the sun drop below the horizon (literally 30 seconds after we arrived on the beach it went!).
Not quite the relaxing romantic sunset we’d intended, but we were able to sit in the restaurant there, share some food (including a delicious warm chocolate brownie 😊) and watch the sky turn orange.
We sat chatting for a while after until it was dark. Time for the walk back along the rocky path through the jungle at night with just our phone lights. We discovered the trick was to shine the phones down at the ground by our feet as if you shone them ahead it made weird moving shadows which kept freaking us out! Haha!
Back on the main beach, the tide was far out and most the restaurants had put chairs and tables out on the flat sand the retreating tide had left. Coupled with fairy lights the whole shore looked lovely. We had to stop for another drink on the way back to enjoy it 😊.
We arrived back just in time to put the kids to bed.
Day 155: A trek to a lighthouse
Still feeling like exploring, we decided to get up, have breakfast as early as possible, and walk to the lighthouse at the bottom of the island. As usual, somehow we didn’t manage to leave quite as early as planned, but finally Chris and I were off (Steve and Marilyn didn’t fancy it so were happy to look after the kids). The path to the lighthouse leaves the beach right next to the Dolphin Bay resort, which was pretty handy for us. Our early start meant the sun was hidden by the trees on the way out, where a lot have been cleared. The path is super easy to follow and undulates up and down, with a final ascent to the lighthouse. The latter half is blissfully shaded, as the sun was already getting hot as we arrived.
Arriving at the lighthouse, we were disappointed to see that the gate into the lighthouse itself was locked, and there were too many trees around the hilltop to give good views. Surely someone had to be around here somewhere to open it? We called into the houses and eventually a man appeared with a key. Bingo!
The ascent is via a series of metal ladders, so not the easiest, but it gets you up high quick. From the top we had great views of the island and an amazing breeze.
There are a couple of other trails which lead to beaches, so we followed one of them on the way back, with ideas of finding our own deserted beach. The reality was that it had already had a load of bungalows built on it, and there was quite a lot of rubbish. The picture hides the true state well!
Put off by the backdrop, we made our way back to the resort instead as the sun started to get really hot. We passed a few groups of people who were only just starting out now – hot work!
We arrived back, treated ourselves to a cool drink and then started to think about lunch. Pretty sure we’d seen some restaurants not far up when we were returning from the sunset the night before, we all wandered up Saracen Bay beach looking for somewhere that appealed and fit the budget. We were also hoping to find somewhere to hire paddleboards afterwards.
We did eventually eat at a restaurant which did sandwiches (a family favourite), but had to walk quite a long way in the heat to get there. The paddle boarding didn’t happen as we couldn’t find anywhere to rent them, the ones we found were for use by the various resort guests only, and our resort had none ☹.
After more swimming, and dinner at our resort (which was reasonably priced for the island and good) we went for an early night.
Day 156: Doing nothing on a tropical island
We had plans to get up and head over to Lazy Beach on the other side of the island, where we hoped to be able to hire kayaks and snorkelling equipment. It wasn’t to be though, Steve and I were not feeling great. I was really tired and had a major aversion to being in even the early morning sun. Possibly heat stroke from the day before. I went back to bed, hoping to feel well enough to get out to the beach in the afternoon.
Whilst we did all feel a bit better in the afternoon, the thought of the long, hot walk up the beach just didn’t seem worth it for the possibility of good snorkelling and kayaks. The kids were loving playing on the beach and messing about in the shallow seas here, so in the end we just joined them and chilled out at the resort all day. Perfect 😊
Day 157: Back to Sihanoukville
Somehow we managed to spend another morning chilling out on the beach at the resort. Hard times! After lunch, we were picked up by the taxi boat and taken back down to the pier, ready to board our boat at what we thought was 3.30pm. That’s the time we’d discussed anyway. When a boat turned up at just before 3pm we double checked our tickets and realised this was us!
With the New Year having already ended for most people (some of the Chinese are still here as they cannot fly back into China and their holidays have been extended due to the virus!), the pier was much quieter today, and only around 30 people boarded the return boat, which was a massive catamaran that could have sat at least 100 today! A much more relaxing journey back to the mainland as the sun started to set.
We were all a bit sad that our time on the island was over; another day would have been nice. Coming into Sihanoukville we could so clearly see the total mess that is the city. On the skyline are many skyscrapers, as you get there you realise that these are 80% unfinished, and massive cranes fill the skies. We likened it to a city which has been destroyed by a major earthquake and is being rebuilt all at once.
We met people who said that two years ago this was a nice town. The story goes that much of the town was bought by the Chinese, who have built many casinos and hotels here. We saw many of these, and a lot of construction company and hotel names in Chinese, which would seem to back this up. The sheer scale of the construction here is mind blowing, and it seems that the roads have almost all been dug up to put in the infrastructure required to service these buildings.
We could see no signs of activity on any of the building sites other than the roads. Apparently, with the dawn of internet gambling, the funding for these buildings has ceased and they are not to be completed. So what happens to poor Sihanoukville with all these empty shells of part built buildings?
All the construction made our journey from the pier to our hostel rather fun again. We took the chance to book our onwards bus tickets for the next day at the stand on the pier before getting into two ramorques. Initially, we couldn’t leave the pier road as a truck was having dirt loaded into it and blocking most the road (which was down to a single lane). As it moved off, there was a mound of softer earth and it lurched wildly, nearly showering rubble on the bikes which were trying to pass it! Once it was clear, out ramorques tried to leave, but it’s uphill, and the soft earth bogged the bikes down. Chris had to get off and push ours, before helping his dad to push the other ramoque through too.
We continued on along rough, pitted roads, bouncing around all over the place and breathing in the dust. Our driver didn’t know where he was going, so we had to direct him near the end. We’d lost the second ramorque with Aiden and the parents in by the time we went to turn into our road, but couldn’t – there was a massive ditch! Luckily Google Maps allowed us to find a way around and we made it to the hostel just before the others, who’d gone a different way.
The hostel rooms were not bad, and we checked in before heading out to get some dinner. A restaurant on the parallel street was recommended by our very welcoming host. To get there we had to walk along the dirt roads, possibly with an open drain running down it, and then cross a ditch.
We found a restaurant on the corner, which seemed to be Chinese or Japanese. We were waved in, so entered the courtyard to be met with massive tanks of all sorts of seafood. There were the usual prawns, lobster, catfish and shells. But also weird phallic clam things and some softshell turtles.
The menu was no less odd, with sharkfin soup and turtle soup on the menu. Prices were around the $50 per dish. We were out sharpish – there’s no way we were going to eat here, even if it was cheap!
We had to cross the ditch again, jump down a large curb and walk across rubble to get to the actual restaurant. Five Men it was called. An odd sort of BBQ place above another bar.
We managed to order some platters of noodles, rice and chicken sweet and sour here which did the job. Then it was time to walk back and say goodbye to each other as we head in different directions tomorrow. Steve and Marilyn are flying to Siem Reap to do Angkor Wat before heading on to Ho Chi Minh. We will be heading across into Vietnam by bus, stopping at Chau Doc and Can Tho in the Mekong Delta to get a taste of it before joining them in Ho Chi Minh again. Bring on Vietnam! I can’t say we’re that sad to leave Cambodia…
Follow us as we reunite with the Mekong river again, exploring the vast expanse of it’s delta, or head back to our time in the eco-village of Chi Phat.